Neural Mechanisms of Attention and Choice Valuation During Decision-Making

描述(由申请人提供)：适应性决策既需要注意相关的环境刺激，也需要准确估计可能采取的行动的后果。这些过程的中断对精神健康是毁灭性的，并且在许多精神障碍中都很常见，包括精神分裂症、成瘾、强迫症和注意力缺陷障碍。尽管注意力和选择期权估值很重要，但人们对这些过程背后的神经机制知之甚少，并最终推动决策。这项拟议的研究将描述影响选择评估的注意动态，从而更好地理解人类的决策过程。首先，通过对猴前额叶皮质注意相关信号的电生理记录，我们将研究注意资源是如何在两个视觉目标之间分配和动态分配的。虽然目前人类分散注意力的模型解决了注意到两个空间上不同的刺激的能力，但分散注意力背后的潜在机制和时间动力学仍然是一个谜。通过准确地了解信息是如何从两个可视目标连续收集的，我们将开始了解如何在基于价值的选择中对两个或更多选择进行评估和比较。接下来，通过考察选择过程中的这些注意动态，并通过电刺激前额叶皮质来调节空间注意，我们将确定在基于价值的选择中，注意力如何与选项价值相互作用。最近的研究和众多的选择模型表明，一个物体的价值在很大程度上取决于分配给它的注意资源。通过监测选择过程中的注意信号，我们可以解释这一假设，并通过实验用微刺激调节注意力，我们将试图直接影响估值过程。这项工作的主要成果将是注意力在基于价值的决策中所扮演的角色的机械模型。这一结果将影响我们对健康、适应性决策的认识，以及可能破坏这种复杂行为的障碍。精神分裂症、成瘾和注意力缺陷障碍影响着数以百万计的美国人，他们有一个共同的特征：在许多选择中，关注、评估和做出最佳选择所需的途径中断。这项研究将调查注意力和评估过程是如何在大脑中发生和相互作用的，为研究这些精神障碍提供了坚实的基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adaptive decision-making requires both attention to relevant environmental stimuli and accurate estimation of the consequences of possible actions. Disruption of these processes is devastating to mental health, and is common to numerous mental disorders including schizophrenia, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and attention-deficit disorders. Despite the importance of attention and choice option valuation, little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie these processes, and ultimately drive decisions. The proposed research will describe the attentional dynamics that underlie and influence choice valuation, and will thus provide a better understanding of the human decision-making process. First, through electrophysiological recording of attention-related signals in monkey prefrontal cortex, we will examine how attentional resources are divided and dynamically allocated between two visual targets. While current models of human divided attention address the ability to attend to two spatially distinct stimuli, the underlying mechanisms and temporal dynamics behind divided attention are still a mystery. By understanding precisely how information is continuously gathered from two visual targets, we will begin to understand how two or more choice options can be valuated and compared during a value-based choice. Next, by examining these attentional dynamics during a choice itself and modulating spatial attention with electrical microstimulation of prefrontal cortex, we will determine how attention interacts with option valuation during a value-based choice. Recent research and numerous choice models suggest that an object's valuation depends greatly on the attentional resources allocated to it. By monitoring attention signals during a choice we can address this hypothesis, and by experimentally modulating attention with microstimulation we will attempt to directly affect the valuation process. The grand product of this work will be a mechanistic model of the role of attention in a value-based decision. The results will impact our knowledge of healthy, adaptive decision-making as well as the disorders that can devastate this complex behavior. Schizophrenia, addiction, and attention-deficit disorders affect millions of Americans, and share a common trait: the disruption of the pathway required to attend to, valuate, and make the best choice out of many options. This research will investigate how the attention and valuation processes occur and interact in the brain, providing a strong foundation from which to study these mental disorders.